


104th Squad

by OreoPromises



Series: Truth Or Dare [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Badass Levi (chapter 1), Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, But most of them, Crack, Drinking Games, Everyone Is Gay, Games, Levi Squad, Not everyone, Truth or Dare (chapter 3), armin is just confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-01 22:13:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12713880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OreoPromises/pseuds/OreoPromises
Summary: -E





	1. Wrist (how they met)

**Author's Note:**

> -E

Levi wasn’t used to being the oldest.

When he was younger, he’d been taught English by the best tutor his parents could find, and so when high school tests rolled around he passed with flying colours two years too early, going to school in the months to come and realising no one understood him when he spoke French, and no one understood him when he spoke English.  
He did well in high school too. At first, his teachers had worried about the tiny foreign boy in their classes, so much younger and smaller than the rest, but soon they saw their worry was misplaced. High school would have been a lot harder, Levi thinks, if it wasn’t for his parent’s legacy. They weren’t famous but they most definitely were rich, a fact the others in his grade seemed to be painfully aware of. There were only a few incidents, but Levi was so much smaller than the other boys and girls that they had left their mark. He was always a little reclusive, but after the fights it just got worse. He stopped using words no one understood, and eventually he found himself talking less and less every day.

He wasn’t used to being the oldest. He wasn’t used to people assuming he wasn’t as clever as they were.  
But both of these peculiarities followed him around now, as he walked to class from his college dorm- a single room, thankfully. He hadn’t had the chance to attend college all those years ago, and it had been three years since he’d finished school. Three years of chaos for his family. But, finally, he could distance himself from those people, from everything he’d grown up with. His head start meant he was only a year older than the average college student, but to him that felt vast.

New people, of course, did not mean new problems. Levi had tried to avoid other students like the plague since he started attending last month, but the boy living a floor below him- an idiot called Xander Johnston- had somehow ran into him on campus as often as he could. He was in one of Levi’s classes and apparently had taken it upon himself to make Levi’s life harder whenever he could. This probably stemmed from his less than desirable test scores, but Levi didn’t think he realised that it was jealousy, not anger, that had resulted in harassing Levi at every opportunity.

Levi spots the other boy first this time, though. The boy with oceans for eyes.

He’s leaning against a brick wall of a college building, the blonde boy he’s normally with at his side, talking quietly to each other. He’s tall- Levi can’t really find it in himself to be jealous anymore- with the biggest eyes Levi has ever seen on a human being, a strange shade of blue-green. The smile he usually wears has a devilish edge that does funny things to Levi’s stomach.

Eren, Levi thinks he’s heard him be called.

Eren isn’t smiling today though. Because the idiot Levi has been trying to avoid for a month is standing a little too close to him. His friend looks angry, but none of them are yelling yet.  
Words float closer as Levi slowly approaches the door they’re standing by.  
“Don’t be like that, Erwin.” The guys saying, and the blonde- Erwin- huffs in frustration and looks at Eren.

“He’s not the problem here” Eren says, and the boys’ attention shifts to him. “You are. How many more times will we have to tell you to leave us alone, asshole?”

“Come on, Jaeger, learn to take a joke-”

“Learn to make one. And don’t call me Jaeger” Eren spits, and Levi’s close enough to see the other guy hold his hands up quickly in surrender. He leans in a little as if to say something and Erwin shoves him away quickly with a forearm against his chest, but he only takes as step towards them again.

“Sensitive, aren’t we?”

Levi feels his own anger in the pit of his stomach as he reaches the door and sees Erwin grind his teeth in annoyance as the idiot keeps talking.

“Look I was only joking, can’t we just have some fun? You can bring that hottie with you, what’s her name again, Mikas-”

Eren grips the guys collar so quickly he’s dragged forward, clinging onto Eren’s forearms so he doesn’t lose his balance.

“Hey!” Levi’s voice is clipped, and they all turn to him in surprise. “What’s going on here?”  
The two strangers look at him kind of blankly, but the asshole he’d been avoiding grins maliciously at the sight of him. He shoves Eren’s hands off him as the boy’s distracted, walking up to stand too close to Levi.

“There he is! My favourite little toy soldier.” Levi doesn’t know why Johnston had taken to calling him something that ridiculous, all he knows is that he really, really hates it and today he’s just really not in the mood for all of this.

“Go to hell, Johnston” he bites back, seeing the other boys look a little closer at him, surprised at the venom in his voice. “And find something a little more intelligent to do with your time other than harassing people that clearly aren’t interested in you.”

Johnston’s face twists, ugly with rage.  
“Stay out of this, shorty” He shoves at Levi’s shoulder harshly, but Levi doesn’t even step backwards, just looks down at where the boy touched him, angry.  
Levi sees Eren throw a hand out to stop Erwin marching over to them, worry in his eyes as he sees his friend put himself in danger. Erwin looks reluctant, but stops walking.

“You heard what the other guy said, Johnston, stop causing problems.” Levi is just exhausted when he see’s this boy now, just knowing he’ll have to put up with this.  
“I said this was none of your business!” This time he shoves hard enough even Levi loses his balance, landing harshly on the asphalt as his phone spirals out of his pocket, sliding away with a grinding sound.

“Woops” Johnston says, holding out a hand for Levi to help himself up with, a sharp grin cutting his features into cruel shapes.  
“Let me give you a hand there.” He’s trying to embarrass him.  
Levi is surprised to hear himself laugh quietly, sweeping his hair out of his eyes as he looks up with a tight smile.  
Knowing he was going to drop him, he grabs the offered hand, and looks straight into the guy's eyes as he twists effortlessly, hearing bone crack sharply under his fingers.

The boy above him screams and twists as he tries to tear his arm out of Levi’s grip, and one of the other boys swears softly behind them, but Levi doesn’t care.

“I really think you should stop bothering people, hmm?” Levi says, voice low and cold with anger, even to himself. He puts his weight on the boy’s forearm as he heaves himself off the ground, simultaneously pulling the boy’s arm and tightening his grip on his wrist. Johnston’s clearly trying not to scream, but he can’t stop his yelling, and Levi feels a hot tear land on his hand as the arm he’s holding tries to twist away from his grip.  
“You should probably get that checked out, too.” Levi mutters, and as soon as he releases him the other boy is running away from him, yelling that he’s crazy, insane, psychotic.

“Are you ok?” The blonde asks, but Levi’s too irritated to answer properly, just picks up his phone from where it fell from his pocket and nods, not looking at them as he walks towards the door again. He hears Erwin’s last words just as the door closes behind him.

“Thank you.”


	2. Of Skittles and Sofas (how they knew)

“Mika save me!” Connie says, throwing himself down on the couch next to her, resting his head in her lap as he throws a hand over his eyes dramatically. Eren, who's sat next to Mikasa’s legs on the floor with Armin, looks up at him.

“You’re bored too?” He asks, and Connie nods and pouts down at him.

“I hate weekdays” he groans, just as Sasha walks in the door, stopping at the sight of them. Erwin's on her heels, and Jean and Levi approach in the opposite direction.  
They're in Armin and Mika’s dorm building- the others live in the block opposite- the second floor lobby empty and quiet. It's Thursday, and Eren’s sure they could all be studying right now. But they were never the kind of friends to meet up and form a study group. They always got too side-tracked.

“Why does everyone look so gloomy?”  
Sasha shrieks, ruffling Armin’s hair as she squeezes between him and the coffee table to get to the other sofa. He hits her with the book in his hand, but folds one of the pages over and sets it down as the others pile onto sofas.  
Jean and Erwin sit opposite Mika in the loveseat across the table, Levi perching on the edge of the sofa Sasha lays on. They brought snacks, and Connie sits up from Mika’s lap as everyone tears into pringles and Oreos.

“What were you guys doing?” Jean asks, and Armin and Eren sigh.

“Absolutely nothing.”

“We were just dying of boredom” Eren says, rubbing at sleepy eyes. “We need something fun to talk about before we all get old and miserable.” Erwin and Levi chuckle at his dramatics, and Sasha stops throwing skittles in the air and catching them in her mouth to roll her eyes.

“There’s loads to talk about!”

She protests, and Levi hits her ankles at the noise, reprimanding as he winces away from the shriek.

“Like what?”  Sasha looks up in thought before starting to giggle. When she looks at Jean, she just laughs harder.

“Wha- hey! What did I do?”

Levi chuckles as Sasha’s laughter just gets harder, hitting him on the leg in her excitement. She takes a deep breath and calms down enough to explain.

“We could talk about that time Alise asked you on a date and you pretended to be deaf so you didn't need to reply.”  
She says, and Jean immediately turns scarlet, mouth hanging open in a half laugh as he glares at her in betrayal.

“Oh my god,” Erwin says, chuckling and putting a supportive hand on Jean’s shoulder “I completely forgot about that.”

“Don't worry Jean, it's not as bad as some of the stuff these two have done” someone says, and Eren feels his eyes pop out of his skull as he realises it’s Mika speaking, one hand pointing to him, the other pointing to Armin.

“No, Mika!”

Armin already has his head hanging in shame, giggling softly at the memories.

“She's right, though. Eren once just ran away when someone said they liked him.” There's surprised laughter as everyone looks at him.

“Armin! I thought I could trust you!” he protests, having to almost yell to be heard over the laughter.

“Who was it?” Connie asks, hitting his shoulder from behind to get his attention, and Eren’s so glad this happened in high school.

“You don't know them, it was ages ago.”

Mika’s still dying behind them, Eren no longer able to hold in his laughter as he hears her laugh so hard.

“You should have seen his face! One second they were talking outside class and then the next Eren’s sprinting in the opposite direction without saying anything!”  
Armin, who'd saw it all with Mika, looks over at Eren's pitiful expression and giggles.

“And then there's the other time when he had a crush and instead of asking for a date he asked him for directions to the toilets” Eren feels his shoulders shake uncontrollably.

“He was literally right outside the toilets” Mika explains, and they look at him fondly as they laugh, grinning as he covers his face with his hands.

“Wow Jaeger you really have no game, do you?”

Armin shakes his head, smiling. “It was so funny though, the boy just looks at the toilet door and Eren's trying not to look like a massive idiot so he just stands there with this creepy smile as the guy just points like two inches to his left and then is all like OH”  Sasha aws loudly as Eren nods, red faced.

“Ok, that's pretty bad” She says. “Did you ever ask him out?”  
Eren shakes his head. “He turned out to be an idiot anyway.”

“What about you Sash, I bet you’ve done something like that” Erwin says, and Sasha fakes offense.

“Whatever do you mean by that? I never do anything embarrassing” Connie snorts and she sighs, sitting up. Levi slides onto the sofa next to her and draws his feet under him.

“I liked this girl in kindergarten and I used to propose to her everyday and told all my teachers we were married” she grins as she says it, beaming even wider at the chorus of aws she gets. Levi chuckles next to her.

“That's adorable and all” Erwin says “but it's not really embarrassing.”

Sasha just shrugs. “That's as embarrassing as it gets. I don't really get awkward around people I like, or that like me.”  
Armin and Eren just glare at her, green with envy.

“Yeah, me neither.”

It’s Connie’s voice, and Sasha’s expression is comical in her disbelief.

“You liar!” She yells, and he snickers as a storm of popcorn is flung in his direction, most of it hitting Armin and Eren as they try to deflect it. It’s clear he only lied so she would pick him up on it, as he grins as he shoves some of the artillery in his mouth.

“Ok, but I’m not that bad.”

“Ok well what about that one time we had a cute waitress that told us to enjoy our meals and you said ‘you too’ ? You’re such an idiot.”  
Connie smiles at everyone as they laugh at him, not really caring.

“I bet Levi’s so cool about it.” Jean says, and Erwin snorts.

“Like anyone would be dumb enough to tell Levi they liked him, they’d fear for their mortality.” He jokes, grinning cheekily at Levi, who smiles a little back and shoves him.

“Very funny.”

Armin brings his knees to his chest and hugs them, head resting on his arms. “But really though” he says “what do you do when someone says they like you?”

Levi shrugs, and they can’t tell from his reactions, but he feels an urge to change the conversation, painfully uncomfortable. “That’s never really happened all that much.” He says quietly.

He just feels his awkwardness rise when they all stare at him, open mouthed in disbelief.

Mikasa’s started to laugh, but she stops when she sees his expression- “Wait- seriously?”

Levi nods and tries to suppress the urge to curl up and die.

“Wow, that’s unexpected” Jean says quietly, and Levi is genuinely confused at everyone’s reactions.

“Why?”

Connie scoffs. “Um, maybe because you’re drop dead gorgeous?”

Sasha nods. “Ten out of ten”

“Like a tiny bundle of sex appeal and danger” Erwin inputs, and Levi feels relieved that they’ve started joking again, because he feels his cheeks heat up when he looks at Eren and sees him staring.

“What about with people that you like?” Sasha prompts, and Levi sighs as he realises they’re not going to let this go.

“Who do you like, Levi?”  Armin asks, and Levi knew this day would come. He isn’t embarrassed by it, more surprised that they hadn’t figured it out on their own. Well it was Armin that asked, so he probably just wanted him to confirm his suspicions.

“What do you mean?” Levi asks in return, knowing full well what they mean but wanting them to spell it out for him. He knows Sasha’s bi, and everyone else in the group seems cool with it, but he’s been judged before and he’d rather it not happen again.

“Do you like girls?” Erwin’s voice.

“Yes.”

“Do you like boys?” Mikasa this time.

“Yes.”

There’s silence as they all think about it, and then a massive gasp as Sasha has an epiphany.

“Oh my god this is the bisexual couch” she says, and everyone just laughs at her glee, as she pulls Levi closer to her in a hug that he pretends annoys him.

“What are the other couches?” Eren asks, and there’s a second where they all just look around at each other, slow smiles growing simultaneously.  
And then everyone’s leaping to their feet and yelling, shoving people and laughing hysterically as Erwin stands on the table and dives onto the sofa Mika’s sat on, arms stretched above his head like a diver. He lands on Connie, who shrieks and hits him, as Jean throws his arms open to Eren who throws his arms open to Jean, falling onto the sofa in a dramatic embrace. Everyone laughs at Armin the most though, standing in the middle of them with his knees slightly bent as if to start running, palms out at his side as he shrieks and shakes, unsure where to go.  
“Aaaaahh!” he looks around at all of the sofas. “I’m just gonna sit on the table!”

Armin plonking himself down on the coffee table amongst the snacks with a satisfied expression has them all cracking up.

“I identify as Oreo-mantic” Connie says, with a ridiculous valley girl accent.

“I am a pringle, nothing more, nothing less, and if you have a problem with that then good riddance, honey.”

They all lose it again when someone whispers ‘taste the rainbow’.


	3. Red Light (how it started)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The truth or dare series series is another prompt series where we all were given a thing to include within an Attack On Titan truth or dare fic. My prompt was 'red light' (thanks, L) which, for those of you who don't know (M, who was rather surprised mwhaha) is a game where two people see how far they can go before one gives up and surrenders (not the actual game red light, an altered version me and L made before). I decided to make mine a College AU because this is going to be part of another series of mine around college Levi squad, so with out further ado, I hope you enjoy reading!- E

Needless to say, Eren had started it.

Their first week back on campus, now second years threatened with responsibilities and exams and everything they hated, had dragged on and on and on until they couldn’t take it any longer. Eren had practically sprinted out of class, friday feeling finally catching up to him, sending out a hurried message to their group chat on his way. Erwin had replied instantly, always up for Eren’s adrenaline-and-alcohol ideas, and pretty soon they’d all messaged back, the night taking on a new edge as everyone came together. It had been Levi’s room that they all ended up in, the older boy having one of the nicests lofts to himself- and never short of alcohol, no matter how much they drank.

There hadn’t been a plan per se, but everyone knew as soon as they were all together it could never be boring, and Levi had shoved his sofa against a wall to make room for everyone, coffee table in the middle of the expected circle of people.

“I request a beverage!” Erwin hollers, striding through the door before Levi spots him and glares, shrinking back a little as he backtracks and takes his shoes off.  
Armin and Mikasa trail him, Mika staring at something on her phone, the smaller boy smiling cutely as he spots Eren, who’d already made himself comfortable. There’s a knowing look in his eyes that makes Eren blush, but only he sees it. Levi, who’d been fussing over glasses and takeaway menus since he’d let Eren in, was still hovering in the kitchen. Eren thanks God he wasn’t close enough to see, because wow he’d not been prepared when he was let in and it must have showed. Levi had a loose green shirt on, with a necklace just peeking out below the neckline, black jeans so tight they should be illegal. And of course, there’s the undercut. And the eyes.

As if sensing someone watching him, Levi’s head pops up as he stands, pulling bottles with him. His place really is amazing, dark grey wall cut out in a large rectangle that showed the kitchen beyond it, and it was a running joke that he’d scared the college so much they’d done up the loft before he moved in so he wouldn’t have anything to complain about. He’d bought furniture himself too- against the rules- Jean and Eren and Sasha sneaking up boxes as Armin helped build them, and it was way more modern than the other dorms.

“For the love of God how much alcohol did you buy?” Armin’s asking, looking through to the kitchen as Levi clinks glasses together and swears under his breath.

“That is the kind of question I like to hear!” someone says, and Erwin turns around to see Connie behind him, Sasha jumping at his side. He grins, and they all walk over to sit beside Eren as Armin goes to see if Levi needs any help.

“Jean says he’s gonna be up any minute” Sasha yells through to them, and Levi’s deep voice floats back to them immediately.

“Then lock the doors already!” He’s just teasing though, and when Jean does walk through, posing at all the catcalls he receives, Levi yells again, a smile on his face when he looks through at them.

“About fucking time asshole, we were going to starve waiting for you.”  
Jean just gives him the middle finger and they all laugh, only getting more excited as Armin chucks menus in the middle of the group like confetti.

“Aaaandd fight!” No one is surprised when Sasha ends up with all of the menus, and they’ve been here so many times to not really need them anyway, rattling off dishes as Armin orders from his phone. Levi comes through when they’re all done, pulling a wheeled table behind him. Armin jumps so high when everyone cheers at the alcohol that the phone flies out of his hand and hits Connie’s head opposite him, just furthering the chaos.

“Hey- that hurt!”

“Sorry, sorry” Armin mutters, Mikasa hooking fingers through his belt loops so he doesn’t fall when he leans over to retrieve his phone, everyone chuckling as he teeters a bit and she pulls him back.

“Maybe if your head wasn’t such a big target he wouldn’t have hit you” Erwin jests, earning a punch on the arm for the comment.

“Like you can talk” Eren says, and he’s way too pleased to hear Levi chuckle.

“His head isn’t actually that big, it’s just his eyebrows” Levi adds, finally sitting down.

Armin’s on Eren’s right, laughing with Jean next to him, and Mikasa’s on his left. Sasha’s next, then Connie, still bickering loudly with Erwin as Levi rolls his eyes, Jean smiling at him as he sits. Eren looks around and feels his mood soar, Armin placing his phone down in the circle of them already there- Connie had made a rule a while ago that anyone that checked their phone was a traitor and would be treated as such, and last time Erwin had did it he’d been trash talked for weeks and everyone made him drink as much as possible in games, so Eren decided not to take the rule lightly.

“What are we playing?” Levi asks, and Jean next to him shrugs.

“We hadn’t decided yet.”

Everyone dies down a bit as they try and decide.

“How ‘bout beer pong?” Jean suggests, but Eren and Erwin shake their heads, and other people don’t seem keen on the idea either.

“That gets boring after a while, we need something more….”

“Scandalous” Sasha finishes, Erwin pointing at her in appreciation as she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

“Exactly.”

“Like what?” Mikasa asks, and Armin looks a little afraid as Eren speaks up. This can’t be good.

“I know!” He exclaims, and all eyes land on him, Armin wincing but Erwin’s eyes lighting up.

“How ‘bout truth or dare?”

Levi squints and tilts his head- a good look for him. “Isn’t that a little childish?”

Sasha and Connie seem into the idea now too though, because they shake their heads enthusiastically, and Erwin smirks.  
“Scared, Ackerman? Afraid of a little dare?” He leans closer to Levi as he challenges him, and the dark haired boy scoffs.

“You know me better than that, don’t you?” Levi counters, smiling mischievously back in a way that definitely makes Eren’s heart malfunction for a second.  
And Levi acts reluctant sometimes, but they all know he’s willing to do almost anything for them, and he was so much funner than they’d thought he was going to be when Erwin dragged him into the group last year. He’s still just as terrifying, but fun too.

“I like this idea” Armin says, and Eren whips his head around to look at him too quickly, yelping as a muscle protests and something that shouldn’t crack cracks. Like all great friends, they all just laugh at his pain.

“You sure?” Armin rolls his eyes at the question.

“How else am I supposed to find information to blackmail you all with?” He asks, sly, and with his and Levi’s acceptance they all know the game’s going to happen.

“You know, I still don’t have that drink” Erwin says, and Levi glares at him but hands him a glass at least.

“Do I look like the barkeep?”

“I don’t know, I’m sure you’d look rather dashing in a maid costume” Erwin says, pouring vodka into his cola.

“You know it.” Levi must be catching the good mood, because he even winks.

They’re lucky no one had been pouring a drink, because apparently Sasha just figured out Levi’s speaker system, a song suddenly blasting out, and if there’s a sure way to end your life it’s making a mess in front of Levi Ackerman. They don’t want to die today, thanks.

“Jesus Christ Sasha” Jean huffs, clutching at his chest with wide eyes as Levi- the only person not to jump out of his skin- laughs at all of their expressions.

“I think my heart stopped” Sasha laughs, and Connie shoves her playfully.

“How do you think we feel!”

Eren looks over at Armin and Mikasa, both sneaking out of the circle to huddle together, and sees they’ve pulled out a pad of paper from her bag and have started furiously scribbling sentences, glancing at their phones quickly and then writing.

“What’re you doing?” He asks, yelping as Mikasa shoves him away with a hand in his face.

“No peeking!” She shrieks, and Armin speaks up. Honestly, sometimes it’s like they have a telepathic  connection or something.

“We’re writing truths and dares” he explains, and simultaneously every other group member leans in to try and read them, Armin yelling at them and brandishing his pen like a sword.

“Eren I love you, this is your best idea yet” Erwin says, and Connie leans in a little.

“I don’t know, the campfire is pretty hard to beat” he argues and everyone ‘oohs’.

“That’s the first time we hung out with Levi, wasn’t it?” Jean asks, a sentimental smile on his lips as they all remember it. It was the first time they’d let him into their little group, and Eren remembers how he’d opened up to them all in the darkness, laughing faces lit orange with firelight.

“Let’s just not mention your bad ideas, aye Jaeger?” Levi teases, and Eren draws back, pretending to be offended. Inside, he’s reeling from the nickname. It’s always so different when Levi says it.

“I don’t know what you mean- I have no bad ideas” he says, voice monotone in mock seriousness, and Sasha snorts.

“Well there was that one time we went to laser tag and you thought you could-”

“OH MY GOD when will you guys let me live, it was a mistake” Eren yells, pushed fondly from all sides as he covers his face.

“And there was that other time with the rubber chicken toy and McDonalds-”

“It’s not as if Erwin’s ideas are all fool-proof!”

Erwin himself doesn’t seem to disagree, but Mikasa looks up as Levi passes drinks around the circle (despite the joke earlier he’d became a sort of unofficial drink maker for them, somehow always making drinks that taste good and were slightly less lethal than the ones Erwin makes).

“Erwin’s an idiot as well, yeah, but every time we’ve been trashed before noon it’s because of you.”

Levi hisses as he takes a sip of his own drink- Levi never uses mixers, tolerance better than most of them- and it’s distracting. Eren’s hopes of acting cool go out the window because his face has apparently decided to be an almost permanent tomato red.

“Okay!” Armin shouts, and Levi puts two beakers in the middle of them on the coffee table, Mikasa putting her strips of paper in one and Armin placing his in the other. Armin’s pieces have tiny ‘t’s on them for truth, and ‘d’s mark the dares.  
Everyone sits a little straighter as the energy spikes.

Erwin’s smiling like a crazy person “I’m going to kick ass at this game.”

“How do you win truth or dare you idiot?”

“By being AWESOME” Levi winces away from him at the noise and Eren shuffles closer to the coffee table.

“In that case, I’m going to win.”

“You’re on, Jaeger.”

Like always, they play shots to decide who goes first. Levi pours out the drinks, some tequila, some sambuca, some vodka, some gin, one water. All clear. The person that gets the water goes first.

“I swear if I get the sambuca again I’mma throw a tantrum” Connie says, shivering as he remembers the taste of it.  
Mikasa and Levi smile, because they always have the same reply to people complaining over drinks. They both say it this time, clinking shot glasses.

“As long as it’s not water, I’m happy.”

They both throw the clear liquid back, and everyone knows better than to look for a reaction because they’re pros at this. Sasha and Jean are not nearly as good though, and both of their faces twist as they drink too.

“Eugh what the hell? Who likes gin anyway!”

Jean’s still squirming when Erwin makes eye contact with Eren.  
“Shall we, doll?” He asks, beaming, and Eren just grins back, knowing what he means instantly.  
They link arms and shot at the same time, both of them laughing when Armin gags beside them, almost spilling the shots.  
They get it on the second time, and Eren feels vodka burn the back of his throat, lighting a fire. Erwin whoops loudly, and Armin gestures to the beakers.

“Truth or dare, you lucky bastard” he asks, and Erwin thinks about it before answering truth. Jean and Connie boo, but he holds his ground.

“If we start out with the dares there’s no tension, kiddies” he explains, as Sasha pulls out a slip of paper from the truth beaker.

“Who do you wish you could switch bodies with for a day?” She reads, and Erwin looks around the group. Connie and Jean start pouting, tilting their heads to the light like beauty gurus and sucking their cheeks in, making everyone laugh, but Erwin’s eyes stop on someone else.

“Sasha” he says, and she beams at him and claps goofily “because I wanna know what it feels like to be a girl.” Everyone seems kind of shocked in the logic of his answer, but then he adds “And I’d love to eat as much as she can.”

“Can you imagine Sasha acting like Erwin though? That’s creepy” Eren says, and everyone nods.

“You’d be a heartbreaker, Er” Mikasa says “Give all the boys and girls the cold shoulder.”

Erwin was really sociable in their group, as energetic and fun as Eren, but he was surprisingly introverted outside of the group despite his popularity. Introvert was not a word ever associated with Sasha.

“OK, Mikasa- your go.” Erwin says, and she picks a truth too, Armin reading it out.

“Confess a lie you’ve told someone in the room.” Mika looks instantly guilty, and Eren’s mouth falls open as people gasp.

“Oh my god, who did you lie to?”

Mikasa covers her face, but she’s laughing. “Sasha you know when you said you couldn’t find your shirt a while ago, the black one with gold thread? I may have borrowed it and then broke one of the buttons off…”

Sasha huffs a shocked laugh “You still have it?!”

“The button came off in the washing machine and I was going to get Armin to fix it!”

Armin looks at her quickly, alarmed to be brought into the conversation, but it would take a lot more than that to annoy Sasha, and she just giggles at Mika’s shame.

“Connie you go” Mikasa says, and Connie has a smirk on his face that tells everyone what he’s going to answer.

“Dare time, mother fuckers!” He screams, and Levi chucks a piece of paper at him, that Sasha picks up and chuckles at.

“Starting on an easy one, folks- finish the person that reads this dare’s drink.” Connie nods in acceptance until he realises Sasha’s drink is sambuca and lemonade.

“Mother of God! I hate you Sash!” he says, knocking the glass back and gulping.  
He starts strong but every swallow brings his expression closer to an impression of Mikasa when someone tries to flirt with her.  
When he puts the empty glass down they cheer for him, and he stands to take a bow that seems a little wobbly because of all the alcohol he just chugged.

“Easy there tiger.” Erwin says, catching his arm as a giggly Connie tries to sit back down again. “Who d’you want to go next?”

“Levi.” Said guy takes a long drink of whiskey before he acknowledges it’s his turn.

“Let’s start with truth first” he says, and they all seem pleased with the promise of dares to come.  
Jean’s voice rises above the music.

“If you could steal a physical feature from someone in this room what would it be?”

“Eren’s eyes. They’re way more exciting than my boring grey ones.”  
Everyone ‘aw’s at the answer, making Levi roll his eyes, but Eren can only sit there as his brain tries to process what just happened.

Levi likes his eyes. He didn’t even need to think about his answer.

“Eren I think it’s your turn” Levi adds, and of course Jaeger says dare. Jaeger invented dares.

Levi picks it- Eren internally freaking out and drinking more of whatever the hell was in his glass to calm himself down-  and reads it out with laughter in his voice .

“Prank call a stranger.”

Sasha and Erwin seem to approve, if the deafening ‘YAAS’s are anything to go by, and Armin chuckles at Eren’s side.

“I’m so glad Eren got this one.” Eren feels a stab of pride as he picks up his phone.

“Oh, but you just touched your phone in the middle of a game so…” It’s Levi’s voice, almost as if he was waiting for Eren to touch his phone since he’d read the dare, and Armin laughs louder at his best friend's expense. When Eren looks up at him helplessly he smirks.

“I mean, he got you there.”

“Piss off, all of you” Eren says, begrudgingly accepting the shot Erwin hands out to him as punishment. It’s whisky, and he sighs a little at the burn of it, but keeps punching in random digits on his phone.

Someone picks up almost immediately, a boy that sounds around their age.

“Hello?” He asks, and everyone in the room starts shoving each other, hands over their mouths and bending over to keep in their laughter as Eren draws a breath.

“Oh yes, hello” he says, posh english accent making even Levi turn away to hide their laughter. “Is this Susan speaking?”

The voice that was most definitely male pauses for a confused second. “Um, no, sorry, who is this?”

Eren tries not to laugh at Sasha’s expression, red faced and teary already. “This is Susan” he says, not heightening his voice register, another moment of silence coming from the phone.

“Um well Susan I think you have the wrong nu-”

“Why are you hanging up when you haven’t told me why you called me, Susan?”

“You phoned me Sir-Madam” Sasha and Connie’s laughter must have gone through to the other side of the phone because they can’t hold it in anymore, but the receiver must be too confused to notice. “And I thought you said your name was Susan? My names Nathan?”

Eren grins up at his friends above the phone. He drops his voice lower, makes it thicker, but keeps the accent.

“I knew it! You are Nathan- I want what’s owed to my family, Nathan”

“I-what-So you’re not Susan?” The pure hopelessness in this boy’s voice makes everyone just laugh harder, Sasha ‘aw’ing in pity.

Eren’s actually impressed at how convincing his girly gasp is. “Nathan how could you? I knew you would have forgotten about me already, you didn’t even remember me enough to know it was me!”

There’s a sharp beep as the poor boy finally hangs up.

“Oh my god” Sasha yells, wiping a happy tears from her eyes “I thought he’d never let you go!”

“That conversations probably gonna haunt him for the rest of his life, poor kid” Armin laughs.

“I think it’s time for Jean’s turn” Eren announces, and Jean looks up, alarmed, but starts to smile.

“Dare.”

Connie giggles through reading the card. “Play red light with any member of your choosing- loser takes two shots.”

Everyone’s in fits as Jean looks around the circle, terrified. He looks at Levi next to him slowly, and the older boy raises a finger from the glass he’s clutching to point at him as everyone ‘oohs’ in excitement.

“You so much as breath too close to me I’ll fuck you up, horse boy”

“Well, then” Jean whips his head away and squints, deciding finally and shuffling over to Eren.

“Are you crazy?!?!” Armin yells “Why would you pick Eren, he’s too competitive to quit!”

Jean ignores him though, and Eren feels his heart thud painfully in expectation. Just as the others crowd round the other side of the coffee table- Levi laughing loudly, yelling at them all for being perverts-  Jean leans into Eren’s ear to whisper so only he can hear.

“I wonder how he’ll react to this, ay Jaeger?” he asks slyly, and Eren suddenly hates him and kind of loves him for picking him for such a ridiculous reason.

“Aaaand begin!” Connie yells at them.

Jean makes the first move, sliding his body so close to Eren’s they touch from shoulder to waist, slinging a leg across Eren’s. Eren can feel his face heat up, but he’s never one to back down from a challenge, so he swallows his nerves and puts on a brave face, grinning what he hopes is a seductive smile.

Eren leans in and grazes his teeth along Jean’s neck, feeling the other boy instinctively tense and pull away slightly, and he smirks. His hand goes to Jean’s waist, pulling him even closer and ignoring how weird this feels. Jean sighs, and Armin and Sasha squeal from the other side of the coffee table, hitting each other excitedly. Eren’s suddenly very aware of Levi’s eyes on him.  
Jean bites his collar bone, surprising him enough for his stomach to leap, and Eren decides to throw it all to the wind, inhibitions be damned.  
He stands up and then sits back down on Jean’s lap, legs either side of him. The other boy’s expression clearly twists, cheeks reddening in embarrassment, flustered, and Eren can’t help but giggle at how cute he looks.  
Surprisingly, Jean works up enough courage to lift his hands to hold Eren’s ass- the shrieks from the others almost rises to deafening levels- as Eren grips the collar of his shirt roughly. He tips his head, close enough their lips almost touch, and Jean crumbles.

“Fold, fold, fold!” He yells, turning his face away quickly as he slaps the ground repeatedly in surrender, and Eren jumps back from him.

“Oh, thank god.”  
Everyones cheering and whooping, Erwin wolf-whistling loudly, but Eren can’t work up enough courage to see if Levi’s clapping too.

“Wow that was strong.” Sasha says, fanning herself.

“I thought you guys were gonna start making out, holy hell.”

Embarrassed but giggling, Jean rubs his neck as he points at Sasha and then to the beakers.

“I think I’m going to pick truth so we can all calm down a little” as Mikasa picks out a truth Eren finally glances at Levi.

Luckily, he doesn’t seem too mad, or disgusted. Wait- are his cheeks kind of pink now? He catches Eren looking and smiles, shakily, licking his lips, and he definitely looks flustered.  
Eren’s heart stops.

“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?”

Sasha groans. “I need to pick one? My life’s an embarrassment!” She pouts as she thinks, and giggles as an idea hits her, looking up despairingly. “I can’t believe I’m going to tell people this.”

“OK, now you need to tell us” Mikasa says, interest clear in her voice.

“Yeah, I love embarrassing stories!”

“Alright, alright.” Sasha can’t stop laughing as she talks. “This one time in college I was seeing this guy I really liked, and he said he wanted to try roleplay-”

Levi’s shoulders are already jumping with laughter, and Erwin and Jean look at each other, chuckling loudly.

“SO” Sasha continues “he gave me this costume to put on and I gave him one- I think it was a nurse and a doctor or something, it was horrible- and he started roleplaying. But when he asked me what my name was I panicked and said Robin which was his Dad’s name-”

“WHAT?” Eren yells, and their laughter is loud enough to drown out the music.

“I can’t breath!”

“-and he looked at me like ‘Sicko!’ and I swear I wanted to crawl into a ball and die!”

“You’re such an idiot” Levi tells her, and Sasha looks at all of their teary eyes and can’t help but laugh just as hard. Eren looks over at Levi and sees he’s chuckling so hard he’s holding his sides, massive grin stretching from ear to ear. Beautiful.  
“I’m going to tell that story at your funeral, Sasha” Erwin says, and she groans again and covers her face.

“Only at my funeral though, if you ever tell that story to anyone I’ll die of embarrassment.”

Mikasa’s fanning herself to cool down, and Levi puts more ice in everyone’s drinks. As if drawn to the movement, Sasha tells Erwin to go again.

“Dare me up, babe” He says, holding out the dare beaker to Armin, who rolls his eyes with a smile.

“Flirt with- oh my god I hate you Er, I hate you so much why me-”

“Flirt with you?!” Levi asks, eyebrows endearingly drawn up in surprise. Eren tries not to stare.

Armin nods, reluctantly, and Erwin chuckles. Armin goes red if you look him in the eye too long, so they all knew it was going to be interesting.

“Well I’m sure that’s gonna be easy, angel” Erwin says, voice smooth, and Armin draws his hands up to his chest, cringing.

“Oh god I ha-Achoo!” Connie aws at Armin as he sneezes, and Erwin throws his head back and then forward dramatically, voice comical in its flirtation.

“I’d say God bless you, but it looks like he already did.”

“I’ll pray for you Ar.”

“Thanks, bro” the blushing blonde replies, looking at Mika as he giggles helplessly. Erwin volunteers Mikasa.

“Dare, then” she replies easily.

“Do an impression of someone in the room, and if no one can guess who it is take a shot.”

Mikasa giggles and stands, walking over to a wall facing away from them.

When she turns around again, she’s pouting like a fish, cheeks drawn in ridiculously, hands held up at shoulder height like a posh woman with too many shopping bags.  
And then, perfectly in time with the music, she does the best impression of Erwin’s infamous drunk dancing, whipping imaginary sunglasses off her face and walking crouch first forward, swaying and doing awful body rolls that make everyone clutch their stomachs as the memory springs back to mind traumatising. She pumps her hands in the air as she yells slurred lyrics.

“Erwin!”

“I did not look like that!”

“You fucking did, dude, exactly like that.”

“I wasn’t that drunk!”

Levi pulls a sceptical face. “You only say that cause you don’t remember us dragging you away from all those people you were shimmying with as you yelled out beyonce lyrics.”

Erwin can’t argue with that.

Mikasa bows as people yell ‘encore’, giggling at herself. “Levi I think you should go again” she says, and he smiles.

“Dare.” Erwin’s the one to announce it this time.

“Kiss the person in this room you find the most attractive.”

Levi rolls his eyes at the chaos that ensues- really, if everyone wasn’t so scared of him he’d surely have gotten multiple noise complaints by now- and bites his lip, the closest he gets to nervous.

And then he leans over and kisses Eren so quickly he doesn’t even have time to think.

Eren freezes, too shocked to move, before melting into the kiss. Levi’s lips are soft, and the kiss isn’t just a peck like it really should have been. Eren kisses back as people whistle and holler around them, not really hearing it.

Levi keeps it short though, pulling away after a few seconds to smirk up at him. Eren would love to see the shocked look on his face right now, and Levi chuckles at him before leaning in for a peck. He looks at Jean when he sits back in his spot.

“If you touch him again I’ll rip your arm off and beat you with it.”

He’s probably joking.


	4. Locked (how to manipulate)

Jean dies a little inside when he realises who's behind the counter of the coffee shop he's in. 

He's not quite decided what he wants, squinting up at the drink menu as the line thins out in front of him, and so he doesn't notice he's at the front before a soft voice is asking him what he would like to order.  
Jean looks down, and immediately forgets the drink he's just decided on.

“Oh, hi Jean” Marco says, freckled cheeks scrunching up cutely in a smile. He seems a little put off when Jean just looks at him.

“D’you know what you want?” 

Death, Jean thinks. An escape route. To go back in time or a fire to spontaneously start so that you don't notice me running away.

“Black coffee” is what he blurts out instead, apparently the first thing his brain could think of that wasn't ridiculous scenarios (thankfully he hadn't said those out loud.) 

Levi drinks black coffee. Eren drinks black coffee with so much sugar in it Jean is convinced he doesn’t sleep at all anymore. Jean does not drink black coffee.

He hopes his face isn't as red as it feels as Marco hands him the devil's drink and tells him to have a nice day, silently speeding through the door.  
Outside the weather’s clear, chill wind and bright summer sky, and Sasha looks up from her phone from were she's sat, feet away in the passenger's seat of Jean’s car.

“What happened to you?” She asks, incredulity in her voice loud through her open window.  
Great. His face must be red.

He can't bring himself to move, just stops outside her window and groans up at the sky, covering his face with his free hand. He doesn't see Sasha start to grin at him.

“Let me guess, Marco’s shift?” She asks, voice teasing, and Jean tries to glare at her, but he just can’t find it in himself to not laugh at how ridiculous he's being. Her smile is catching.

“I got a black coffee, Sasha- black coffee!” He yells, holding it up in front of him. She pulls a disgusted face.

“What, why?”

“I panicked!” He shrieks, and she giggles at him as he walks around the car to the driver’s seat.

“Is he still working?” 

Jean doesn't think about how strange that question is until it's too late.

“Well yeah, I think so, it's only been-” The sharp click doesn't register in Jean’s mind until he's tugging on his car door. It won't open, and one glance inside shows Sasha waving the keys at him with a smirk.

“What- Sasha what are you doing?” 

“What does it look like?” Oh, Jean has a bad feeling about this. “Go talk to him.”

“WHAT?” 

Sasha rolls her eyes at him as she chucks the keys on the back seats. 

“Sasha come on, open the door, let's go.”

Sasha tips her chin up pridefully and crosses her arms, not giving any mercy.

“Not until you go talk to Marco.”

Jean can't help trying to open the locked door again, even though he knows it's useless.

“Sasha come on I’m not kidding.” Sasha’s reply is unexpected , to say the least.

“Well neither are we” she says, and after tugging harshly at his door again Jean stops, bending down to look at her throw the slight open of the driver’s window.

“We?”

Connie takes this time to jump up from behind Sasha’s seat.

“Surprise!”

“Holy jesus!” Jean jumps, hands flying up to his chest, wide eyed as they both snicker.

“When did you get in my car?” He yells through the window, and they only laugh harder at how high his voice is in disbelief.

“Sasha saw Marco through the window and text me. I was in the book shop across the block so I ran here and she let me in.”

Sasha and Connie don't seem to think about how strange that is.

“Ok, well, what are you doing here, then?”

“Waiting for mistakes to be made.”

Jean stutters in annoyance. “Wha-hey! What's that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, I honestly pegged you to have decided to walk back to your dorm and leave Sasha already, and I'm still expect you to.” 

Jean raises an eyebrow, surprised. “You think I'd be making a mistake?”

Connie just nods, surprisingly serious. And then, a little more in character, raises his hand to his chin in a contemplative gesture, teasing in his voice now too.   
“However, does black coffee really say ‘I’m homosexual’? You may have seriously ruined your chances there, buddy.”

“Marco’s a good guy” Sasha says over him, grinning up at Jean “and I know you like him.” Her grin looks as if she knows their words are starting to sway him. They know him annoyingly well.  
“I also happen to know he should be on his break by now.”

Jean looks at the dashboard and sees that fifteen minutes have already passed since he first went into the store.

“And you know his break times how?”

They both shrug. “Levi gets coffee enough to notice when the cute guy you always look at gets off on breaks.”

And that makes sense. Clever, coffee addicted, evil Levi would be the one to notice Jean’s little crush. 

“You texted Levi for this just to torture me?”

“Well, of course, who would you go to for blackmail material?” Jean can’t argue with that, Levi always picks up on subtle little things about them all too small for the others to spot. He doesn’t use them like this, but Sasha and Connie are apparently not beneath using his observations to torture Jean senseless.

“But when you go back in there you should order a drink that doesn’t scream ‘straight guy’” Connie’s saying again, and Jean remembers the first time he’d spoken to these two, in a group project the first few weeks of college where he didn’t know anyone. At first he’d been put off by Connie’s joking like this, but soon discovered it was all harmless fun when he realised Sasha was very, very bi and the two had known each other forever.

“What kind of drink screams ‘bisexual’?” Sasha muses, and it seems they know he’s going to take their advice and go attempt a conversation, because they start talking as if he’s not there anymore.

“Mocha, obviously” Connie answers, and Sasha scoffs.  
She rolls her eyes. “You’re really weird, Con.”

Jean doesn’t hear anymore of their conversation because he’s dumping the black coffee in the bin by the shop door, breathing deeply before he swings the door open again. It only takes him two seconds to see Marco in the corner, sipping an iced tea as he scrolls through his phone.  
“Uh, hi” Jean says, ignoring the initial cringe as Marco looks up at him in surprise. “Can I sit with you?”  
Jean feels himself relax as Marco starts to smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> E


	5. Surprise! (How to make them smile again)

Eren had saw Armin angry only once. Frustrated, sure, and he wasn’t as passive as others seemed to think, he got annoyed just as everyone else did. But being really, really angry- that’s something Eren had only witnessed once.

 

It had been during a study period, where their teacher had left them on their own to look over notes and revise for their upcoming exam period- mocks, thankfully, but stressful just the same.

Armin was sat right next to Eren, as usual, and Eren could see Levi’s back a few rows ahead of them- the older boy had been sat there before he’d been introduced to their group, and hadn’t moved seats. Eren didn’t mind it, surprisingly- despite being in no way helpful to his studies, having Levi in sight where he couldn’t see Eren was the best kind of distraction. He can see him now, paying no attention to the chaos around him, earphones blocking out most of the noise, dark undercut covered partially by the collar of his jacket (soft navy fabric, long and tailored, one Eren himself had bought him.)

Sometimes Levi turns around just to catch Eren’s eye, always strangely aware of when he’s looking, and he does it now, just for  a second, lips pulling up into a one sided grin.

Armin laughs at Eren by his side, and he’s drawn back down to earth again.

“What’s so funny?”

Armin smiles up at him, amused, rows of detailed notes neatly written up in front of him, shaking his head. “You, Eren. You always get that look around him.”

Eren feels his cheeks heat up- strange in itself, because anyone that had ever met Eren Jaeger knows Eren Jaeger is completely shameless- and he’s too embarrassed to ask what Armin means. He already knows, anyway.

“I’m not as bad as Jean, am I?” He asks, because any excuse to tease Jean is one he can’t resist, and also to move the attention away from him. Eren and Levi had only been... a thing for a short time, a month or so, and it still made Eren lightheaded to talk about.

“No” Armin laughs. “No one could be worse than Jean...It’s a different look though.” His smile is sweet when he looks back at Eren, but he knows Armin’s teasing.

“When-uh. I mean...is there a-” Eren can’t voice his question for the life of him, and it only makes Armin’s smile sharper.

“Does Levi have a ‘look’, you mean? When he looks at you?” Eren wants to disappear, with how ridiculous his own thought makes him feel, but though Armin’s voice lilts in amusement and he’s clearly enjoying this, there’s a softness to his expression too.

But it doesn’t last very long, because before Armin can answer, the conversation of a group to their left, one row down, drifts up to their bench.

“You mean that Ackerman girl?” The name makes both of them sit quietly as they wait for the response. It’s two boys they don’t very well, but something about their voices makes Eren sure this isn’t going to go well.

“Yeah, that’s the one” one of the boys is replying, and the other next to him pulls back with a weird expression. Eren feels himself frown, and Armin’s gone dangerously quiet beside him.

“I wouldn’t try my luck with her, mate” he says. “She’s a stuck up bitch.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to  _ date  _ her, you know what I mean?” The boy’s laughing as he says it, with his back to them, and as they laugh Eren can see Levi slip one of his earphones out in front of them.

“She’s Jaeger’s sister right?” Their voices are quieter as they say this, as if they know how close Eren is and think whispering’s going to make any difference. 

Eren can see Levi sit a little straighter. But he can sense all three of them want to know where this is going.

“Yeah. He’s not so bad. Hangs around with a bunch of gays though.”

Eren almost instantly sees red, but it’s the kind of rage that paralyses him, makes forming words seem like an impossible task. He sees Armin glance at him.

“They’re not worth the trouble, Eren” he says, voice low in a way unlike the leering group before them.

“Oh yeah- that Sasha girl, right? Heard she’d sleep with anyone.” His voice is ugly, sneering, and Eren can only wonder how much longer Levi can stay in his seat if they continue to pick out his friends like this.

“Nothing on the Ackerman girl though” the first guys says, and his friend laughs and leans in, smirking. The look alone makes Eren’s stomach twist.

“Want me to find her room number for you?” Eren doesn’t hear the other boy’s response, but he starts when Armin stands suddenly, and when he looks down he sees Levi looking up at them with a question in his eyes. Armin shakes his head at him in answer, and Eren’s stunned into staying rooted in his seat when Armin walks up to the group, and he sees his clever fingers curled into fists.

 

The boy’s look up at him as he stands beside them, looking annoyed but nowhere close to guilty. 

“What do you want?” One of them asks him, and the smile Armin gives them is new, tight and cruel and threatening, so unlike Armin.

“I’d appreciate it if you would keep it down.” He tells them, and the other boy leans back in his chair in a way that has Levi (watching openly from where he’s turned in his seat) taking his earphones out completely, stuffing his phone in his jacket as if to get up.

“Oh, I see. You go around with that group, don’t you?”

His friend lets out an exaggerated ‘ah’ of understanding, and they share a condescending look.

“You don’t like what we had to say, that it?”

Amrin nods.“That’s it.” He says plainly.

The guy that had crossed his arms shrugs up at him, arrogant. Even standing, Armin still looks so small in comparison. “We’re allowed to sat what he want to say.”

There’s a silence, because Levi takes this moment to stand and makes his way over stiffly, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Is there a problem?” He drawls, voice deep and calm as usual, but Eren can’t help but remember the day he first saw him, hear the crack of bone echoing in the memory.

The boys laugh, but it’s not quite convincing.

Eren hadn’t expected Levi to involve himself, considering no one outside of their group knew about them yet, and he feels unexpected butterflies in his stomach, so out of place in this situation. 

“95REHUSLJ.” Armin says suddenly, staring at one of the boy’s unwaveringly, and from the look on Levi’s face the random sequence of letters must cause a reaction. 

“Wha-” the boy’s voice wavers, and Armin smiles. “That’s my-”

“Your social security number, yeah.” Levi doesn’t look surprised, fixing a blank look on both boys, but Eren can just make out the goosebumps on the sitting boy’s arm.

Armin’s voice is almost analytical as he explains. “It isn’t the first time I’ve overheard one of your conversations.” And then almost as an afternote: “Your security software’s atrocious.”

Eren reminds himself not to piss Armin off any time soon.

  
  


Later in the day, Armin’s even quieter than usual. Eren doubts any of the others notice, but he can’t help but pick up on how close he sits to Sasha, shoulders squished together as they sit against Levi’s dorm wall, how he smiles at Erwin whenever he meets his eye. How he places his head on Connie’s shoulder when the boy sits at his other side. 

“What’s up?” Connie asks him, but Armin’s only reply is shaking his head. Connie makes a fond noise like a hum of approval and shuffles further down the wall so Armin doesn’t crane his neck so much.

 

Eren’s brought out of his worrying a little when Levi takes off his jacket and drapes it over the back of his armchair, smiling a little at Eren’s gaze. He’s wearing a silk shirt, dark, wine red, catching the light when he drops into the seat. Eren’s stomach drops sharply when Levi pats his lap.

He’d started doing this recently and it does awful things to Eren’s heart rate.

 

Sasha squeals from the corner as Eren sits, Levi pulling him back towards him by his waist.

“Who’d have thought Levi would be so touchy” she teases, and Eren can feel Levi’s stomach jump as he laughs. Armin and Connie look up with matching smirks as Erwin turns towards them. He’s lying on the couch, legs stretched out so he takes up the whole sofa.

Connie ‘aws’ loudly. 

“You’re a cute couple” Erwin mumbles sleepily, rubbing his eyes, and Eren wonders if he’s the only one of them blushing.

The three on the floor are sharing looks that make Eren suddenly grateful he’s not taking up an entire sofa by himself.

“EGAD!” Erwin opens his eyes just in time to see them all pounce at him, laughing hysterically.

He twists, startled, with his hands up to his chest, which only means Armin- thankfully _Armin_ , who weighs almost nothing- lands on his stomach. Sasha and Connie had aimed for his legs, but Erwin had tucked the up at the last minute, leaving them groaning in disappointment as they crash down on the leather.

“Aw, Erwin! You weren’t supposed to move!” Sasha yells at him, and Erwin seems far more awake now. He’s laughing as he catches Armin trying to crawl off him and pulls him to his chest.

“Erwin!” Armin struggles as he’s flung about but can’t stop laughing either, surrendering to the hug as Erwin tightens his arms around him. With the size difference, Admin looks like a human teadybear.

“Erwin stop squeezing so hard, you’ll break him!” Connie yells, slapping Erwin’s legs with a cushion, and there’s a muffled, offended “Hey!” from Armin that makes them all laugh.

Erwin sits up and releases Armin, patting down blonde hair pointing in all directions.

 

“So, I was thinking” Armin starts “that we should probably do something to cheer Jean up.”

Jean had came out that past weekend. It hadn’t been taken so well by his parents.

“Aw, Miny. You’re so sweet.” Armin blushes as Erwin ruffles his hair, disrupting the locks he'd just smoothed down.

“What should we do, though?” Levu asks, face resting on the side of Eren’s arm from behind. 

Sasha pouts. “Jean’s not normally so down” she says unhappily. 

 

As the room gets a little quieter, Eren feels restless. He needs to move around, so he stands and walks over to lean against the wall, just to feel like he’s doing something.

“It can’t be that hard to think of things Jean likes, right?” He asks, and they all go quiet for a second as they think, Levi leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees.

“Marco?” He says.

“And hugs” Sasha adds.

“Hugging Marco.” Connie gasps dramatically. “We could set up a 'hugs with Marco' booth in his dorm!” 

They’re giggling again, and Eren’s grateful for how quickly Connie always manages to make them laugh.

“We need a surprise” Levi says. “Something unexpected.”

Erwin mutters “Why don’t you just jump him” with mock bitterness, and there’s a look shared between Connie and Eren that has Levi rolling his eyes.

“No.”

Eren whines back immediately. “Why not? It would be surprising!” 

Connie’s voice is full of laughter. “Oh come on, it’d be funny.”

Erwin raises an eyebrow. “You’d just get yourself hurt, you idiots.”

Offended, Eren holds up a hand in protest. “Wo, wo. Jean’d have no problem letting me fall on my ass, but he’d at least catch Connie.”

Armin looks doubtful, but Sasha’s clearly warming to the idea, and Levi’s smirking.

“If he’s with Marco, you’re being ignored” he says dryly.

“I think this would make him laugh again” Sasha inputs, and Erwin suddenly lights up with giggles.

“What if we keep doing it so he knows it’s coming, just not when?” 

 

 

The first time is the very next day. Jean and Mikasa, the unfortunates in their group that had been landed with morning classes, were already in the canteen when the rest of them made their way towards their table. Jean was talking with Marco, standing, just placing his tray down when Connie started running.

“Catch!” 

Jean’s face had been tired, drawn down in a tiny frown with tired eyes, but the look of panic on his face is so comical when he looks up to see Connie throwing himself towards him they all start howling with laughter.

“CONNIE WHAT THE HELL”

Jean catches him, in a canteen that's just starting to fill up, as the group in front up him drag each other down in their hysterics, screaming the entire time it takes for Connie to land in his outstretched arms.

And then he immediately drops him.

“What was that for?”  He’s screeching, but they’re all laughing too hard to answer him (not like they would anyway.)  And Eren catches a glance of Armin hitting Sasha in his laughter and realises that this has cheered him up too, from the stupid comments he’d heard about them all the other day.

It only motivates him more.

   
  


“Now” Eren whispers in Connie’s ear.

Jean’s at Levi’s door, taking two boxes of pizzas from the delivery boy and closing the door behind him. 

And just as he turns to face them again-

“TRUST JUMP!” 

“CONNIE NO”

Jean panics as he sees Connie stand up off the sofa and jump towards him, screachung as he tries to chuck the pizzas away as close to the floor as possible whilst still having time to raise his arms.

“ _WHY DO YOU DO THESE THINGS?”_

Connie is tearing up with manic laughter, as Jean clings to him with his panicked expression, still looking scared out of his skin.

“My pizza!” Erwin yells dramatically, crouching to retrieve the boxes Jean had flung away (luckily- for all of them, because Levi would kill them if it had messed up his dorm- the food had stayed in the boxes.)

Connie wipes away a tear as he lies in Jean’s arms, cradled like a baby.

“You sacrificed the pizza, for me?” he says, voice breathy like something from a romance movie, gazing up at Jean with a touched expression. 

Again, Jean wastes no time in dropping him.

“I hate you guys so much” he says, but he’s laughing for the first time in a while. 

 

Two days later...

 

“Coming Jean!”

“NO! _I HAVE COFFEE!_ ”

Connie shrieks as a coffee mug breaks beneath him.

 

It quickly becomes a regular game, and they’re lucky Jean has quick reflexes. So far they’d caught him holding eggs, Armin, Sasha’s cat… and everytime he shrieks louder, laughs harder as he tries to drop everything as Connie flies through the air towards him.

The sad look had been wiped from his face- and he hadn’t dropped him yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading guys! This series is going to be chapters that link together but don't really follow a very strong plot, if that makes sense? All the same characters, just different things happen in all of them and they can be read separately. Hope you enjoyed and if you have any requests for other chapters in the series I'd be happy to hear them because I just got into this fandom and I am obsessed... so obsessed  
> And I now have instagram : https://www.instagram.com/p/BdaEcvcHzGe/  
> and tumblr, at 104th-sqwahd-e  
> Come freak out with me!


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